THE COUNTRY ACROSS

APPEALS COURT TO HEAR STATE'S TRANS ATHLETE POLICY AFTER ‘NO HOMO’ COMMENT NBA FINES CAM THOMAS $40K

The National Basketball Association announced that they have fined Cam Thomas, from the Brooklyn Nets, $40,000 for comments he made during a live television interview after the Net’s victory over the Chicago Bulls.

Spencer Dinwiddie and Dorian FinneySmith are new members to the Nets after the Nets traded Kyrie Irving to the Dallas Mavericks.

“We may not be the best trade package, but we’re the best looking, and the Nets needed some help in that department,” Dinwiddie said at an earlier news conference after the trade.

Thomas was asked about Dinwiddie’s statement on TNT.

“I [saw] it, but I was like, ‘He just talking,’” Thomas said. “We already had good-looking dudes, no homo.”

“All right, I’m certain the league office will enjoy that one,” TNT’s sideline reporter Jared Greenberg said.

Thomas apologized for his remarks.

“I want to apologize for the insensitive word I used in the postgame interview,” Thomas tweeted.

“I was excited about the win and was being playful. I definitely didn't intend to offend anyone, but realize that I probably did. My apologies again. Much love.”

Connecticut’s policy of allowing trans girls to participate in school sports will have an appeal reheard by the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New York City after the court had dismissed the appeal last December.

The appeal concerns four cis-gender runners who state they were unfairly forced to compete against trans athletes in high school athletics. These four runners filed a federal lawsuit in 2020 against the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference, which governs high school sports in the state, as well as several local school districts. A three-judge panel said they lacked standing to sue back in December. Now, a majority of the court’s judges voted in favor of rehearing the appeal, they stated in a decision on Feb. 13. CIAC was defended in the lawsuit by the

American Civil Liberties Union.

“As the initial ruling found, cis-gender girls lose nothing from the participation of trans girls and Connecticut’s policy simply recognizes the right of all student athletes to equal participation and protection under Title IX,” Joshua Block, an attorney for the ACLU, said.

STATE INVESTIGATES TRANS CENTER OVER ITS GENDER-AFFIRMING CARE

Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey announced Feb. 9 that the state has started a multi-agency investigation into Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. The investigation comes after a former case worker alleged children received gender-affirming care without “appropriate or accurate” mental health assessments.

The confirmation of the investigation from the Attorney General’s office comes the same day that Jamie Reed, previous case worker at the facility, discussed her allegations in an op-ed published in the Free Press. The Attorney General's office had previously received a 23-page affidavit from Reed that was published on their website. In the affidavit, Reed alleged that staff violated the center’s own treatment guidelines.

Washington University in St. Louis, the parent institution of the Children’s Hospital, said in a statement that they are “alarmed by the allegations reported in the article published by The Free Press describing practices and behaviors the author says she witnessed while employed at the university’s Transgender Center.”